She strikes on 18 months after promoting GITNB to Sean Lee-Davies, founding father of affect and enterprise studio Awethentic Group, and elements methods with co-founder Paula Miquelis, who’s staying on on the firm.
GITNB is finest recognized for the Aware Competition sustainable life-style occasion, which has been held in Singapore, Hong Kong and Paris.
Dickson mentioned she was leaving as a result of she felt it was the appropriate time for herself in addition to GITNB “to evolve”; she shared that her earn-out interval with GITNB after the sale of the corporate has come to an finish. She has re-joined The Wedge Asia, the sustainable occasions and technique consulting agency she based in 2015.
“I felt a robust pull to step into new areas the place I might proceed to create affect in contemporary and dynamic methods,” she mentioned.
On her new position, Dickson advised Eco-Enterprise that there was a niche available in the market for genuinely sustainable occasions in Asia, the place sustainability is just too typically “an afterthought reasonably than a design precept”.
The largest points dealing with occasions sustainability are “single-use the whole lot, extreme journey emissions, and a reliance on carbon offsets as an alternative of actual reductions,” she added.
The occasions trade is chargeable for an estimated 10 per cent of world emissions, together with supplies and vitality used, however largely the transport required for individuals to entry the venue.
“Too typically, sustainability is approached with a ‘tick-the-box’ mentality – swapping plastic for paper, however not addressing the deeper systemic points,” mentioned Dickson.
“On the identical time, we face widespread local weather fatigue. Even Gen Z, who’re anticipated to be probably the most engaged, are feeling overwhelmed. The identical outdated sustainability messaging isn’t chopping by means of anymore.”
To attain actual change, occasions organisers “want to maneuver past boring compliance and as an alternative spark intrigue, creativity and inspiration,” she mentioned. She additionally recommended a must rethink materials use, prioritise native provide chains and lower pointless journey and scale back occasion footprint with hybrid codecs.
Throughout her time operating GITNB, Dickson additionally hosted a podcast, Stay Vast Awake, and co-founded girls’s Web3.0 affect platform
“barely survived” the Covid-19 pandemic, and had to carry The Aware Competition just about in 2020.
Earlier than she left, she had deliberate to pivot GITNB into extra of an eco-wellness platform and develop the “aware management” facet of the enterprise.
Dickson began her profession working in telemarketing in Melbourne in 2008. She later labored for Singapore-based agency Fide Enterprise Options as occasions and advertising supervisor, earlier than launching GITNB in 2015.
